Oscar E. Berninghaus

born St. Louis, Missouri, 1874; Taos, New Mexico, 1952

BiographyOriginally self-taught as a lithographer and illustrator, Oscar Berninghaus became one of the most successful painters among the Taos Society of Artists. He began sketching at the age of 10 and painting by 12, learning by studying the lithographs his father sold and the work of other artists. He eventually took a few evening art classes in St. Louis at the School of Fine Arts, Washington University, his only formal training. He became a talented professional lithographer and engraver in St. Louis. In 1899 he went on a sketching trip to the Southwest sponsored by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and the train’s brakeman encouraged him to visit Taos. He spent a week there, met the artist Bert Phillips, and was encouraged to return. He began visiting Taos in the summers and was a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists in 1915. He eventually relocated there permanently in 1925, and focused on the everyday life of the Pueblo Indians around Taos and on the surrounding landscape.

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